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Saturday, August 30, 2014

This is a rather common dish you'll encounter at many western restaurants. I recently had a variation of this dish at one of the local establishments which left me rather dissatisfied. It was really just some prawns on a hot plate with garlic oil and some chilli flakes. After the meal, I decided to make my own rendition of it. In fact I actually went and bought the prawns for this immediately after leaving the restaurant.

I added macadamia nuts, chorizo, tomatoes and corriander to give some additional flavour dimensions. The macadamia add a mild nutty flavour and textural contrast. Chorizo are savoury spicy sausages with some fat which makes it meld flavours very well with the whole dish. The tomatoes provide some sweetness and the corriander give the dish a fragrance which lifts the whole dish.

2. Lightly toast the macadamia nuts on a large dry pan over medium heat. Toast them just till they start have brown patches on the exterior. Be careful not to burn them. Remove them from the pan and set aside.

3. Wipe down the pan and then add a good amount of olive oil. (This forms the sauce). Roughly a quarter to a third of a cup. Heat the oil over medium heat. When the oil is heated add the Chorizo, garlic, chilli flakes and tomatoes. Cook for about a minute or so until the garlic just starts to brown and the Chorizo should start to crisp up. Careful not to let the garlic burn. (Or you can crisp up the Chorizo first in the oil together with the tomatoes, then set them aside when you fry the garlic with the chilli flakes. You can add the tomatoes and Chorizo at the end just before the corriander in step 4 below)

4. At this point and in the prawns. They just take like 10-20 seconds per side so turn them over as needed. When the prawns are almost cooked though turn off the heat and in the toasted macadamia nuts and coriander. Toss and mix well.

5. Serve immediately with crusty bread and a slice of lemon. The bread is awesome for mopping up the garlicky spicy sauce.